Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution

Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
	Branch of Government of India
	Ministry of Consumer Affairs
	; South Block building, housing the Cabinet Secretariat
Agency overview
Formed	2 September 1946
Jurisdiction	Government of India
Headquarters	Sansad Bhavan, New Delhi
Annual budget	₹205,765 crore (US$25 billion) (2023–24 est.)
Ministers responsible	Pralhad Joshi, (Cabinet Minister); Nimuben Bambhaniya, (Minister of State);
Website	https://consumeraffairs.nic.in/

The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution is a government ministry of India. The ministry is headed by a Cabinet rank minister.

Departments

The ministry is divided into two departments, the Department of Food and Public Distribution and the Department of Consumer Affairs.

Department of Food and Public Distribution

The objectives of the department are to ensure:

remunerative rates for the farmers.
supply of food grains at reasonable prices through the public distribution system.

Public Distribution System

The Indian Public Distribution System (PDS) is a national food security system that distributes subsidised food to India's poor. Major commodities include wheat, rice, sugar and kerosene. Surpluses of food from increased crop yields (as a result of the Green Revolution and good monsoon seasons) are managed by the Food Corporation of India, established by the Food Corporation Act 1964. The system implements national policy for farm price support, operations, procurement, storage, preservation, inter-state movement and distribution. PDS has a network of about 478,000 Fair Price Shops (FPS), perhaps the largest distribution network of its type in the world, operated by the Union Government and state governments.

Department of Consumer Affairs

The department administers the policies for Consumer Cooperatives, price monitoring, essential commodity availability, consumer movement and control of statutory bodies such as the Bureau of Indian Standards(BIS) and Weights and Measures.^[1]

The department is responsible for:^[1]

National Test House
Standards of Weights and Measures
The Bureau of Indian Standards
Consumer Cooperatives
Forward Markets Commission, Mumbai
Monitoring of Prices and Availability of essential commodities
The Consumer Protection Act, 2019
Consumer Welfare Fund
Internal Trade
Inter-State Trade: The Spirituous Preparations (Inter-State Trade and Commerce) Control Act, 1955 (39 of 1955).
Control of Futures Trading: the Forward Contracts (Regulations) Act, 1952 (74 of 1952).

The department regulates the availability and prescribes measures to see that the system works towards the food security of vulnerable people. This intent is to increase dignity, accountability, visibility, positive orientation and changed mind set.

Ministers

Food & Agriculture (1947–71)

#	Name	Term of office			Prime Minister	Party
1	Rajendra Prasad	15 August 1947	14 January 1948	152 days	Jawaharlal Nehru	Indian National Congress
2	Jairamdas Daulatram	19 January 1948	13 May 1950	2 years, 114 days
3	K M Munshi	13 May 1950	13 May 1952	2 years, 0 days
4	Rafi Ahmed Kidwai	13 May 1952	24 October 1954	2 years, 164 days
5	Ajit Prasad Jain	25 November 1954	24 August 1959	4 years, 303 days
6	S. K. Patil	24 August 1959	1 September 1963	4 years, 8 days
7	Swaran Singh	1 September 1963	9 June 1964	282 days
8	Chidambaram Subramaniam	9 June 1964	12 March 1967	2 years, 276 days	Lal Bahadur Shastri Indira Gandhi
9	Jagjivan Ram	13 March 1967	27 June 1970	3 years, 106 days	Indira Gandhi
10	Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed	27 June 1970	2 May 1971	309 days	Indira Gandhi
Ministry of Food was renamed as Ministry of Agriculture with four departments, including the Department of Food^[2]

Food & Civil Supplies (1983–91)

#	Name	Term of office			Prime Minister	Party
11	Bhagwat Jha Azad	14 February 1983	31 December 1984	1 year, 321 days	Indira Gandhi Rajiv Gandhi	Indian National Congress
12	Rao Birendra Singh	31 December 1984	25 September 1985	268 days	Rajiv Gandhi
13	Kamakhya Prasad Singh Deo	25 September 1985	27 January 1986	124 days
14	P. Shiv Shankar	27 January 1986	12 May 1986	105 days
15	H. K. L. Bhagat	12 May 1986	14 February 1988	1 year, 278 days
16	Sukh Ram	14 February 1988	2 December 1989	1 year, 291 days
17	Nathuram Mirdha	8 December 1989	10 November 1990	337 days	V. P. Singh	Janata Dal
(12)	Rao Birendra Singh	21 November 1990	21 June 1991	212 days	Chandra Shekhar	Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya)

Food (1991–96)

#	Name	Term of office			Prime Minister	Party
1	Kalpnath Rai	18 January 1993	21 December 1994	1 year, 337 days	P. V. Narasimha Rao	Indian National Congress
2	P. V. Narasimha Rao	21 December 1994	10 February 1995	51 days
3	Ajit Singh	10 February 1995	16 May 1996	1 year, 96 days

Civil Supplies, Consumer Affairs & Public Distribution (1991–96)

#	Name	Term of office			Prime Minister	Party
1	P. V. Narasimha Rao	21 June 1991	18 January 1993	1 year, 211 days	P. V. Narasimha Rao	Indian National Congress
2	A. K. Antony	18 January 1993	8 February 1995	2 years, 21 days
3	Buta Singh	10 February 1995	16 May 1996	1 year, 96 days

Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution (1996–present)

#	Name	Term of office			Prime Minister	Party
1	Atal Bihari Vajpayee	16 May 1996	1 June 1996	16 days	Atal Bihari Vajpayee	Bharatiya Janata Party
2	Devendra Prasad Yadav	1 June 1996	21 April 1997	324 days	Deve Gowda	Janata Dal
3	Inder Kumar Gujral	21 April 1997	24 April 1997	3 days	I.K. Gujral	Janata Dal
4	Chaturanan Mishra	24 April 1997	10 January 1998	261 days		Communist Party of India
5	Balwant Singh Ramoowalia	10 January 1998	19 March 1998	68 days		Independent
6	Surjit Singh Barnala	19 March 1998	13 October 1999	1 year, 208 days	Atal Bihari Vajpayee	Shiromani Akali Dal
7	Shanta Kumar	13 October 1999	1 July 2002	2 years, 261 days		Bharatiya Janata Party
8	Sharad Yadav	1 July 2002	22 May 2004	1 year, 326 days		Janata Dal (United)
9	Sharad Pawar	22 May 2004	19 January 2011	6 years, 242 days	Manmohan Singh	Nationalist Congress Party
10	K. V. Thomas	19 January 2011	26 May 2014	3 years, 127 days	Manmohan Singh	Indian National Congress
11	Ram Vilas Paswan	26 May 2014	8 October 2020	6 years, 135 days	Narendra Modi	Lok Janshakti Party
12	Piyush Goyal	8 October 2020	10 June 2024	3 years, 246 days		Bharatiya Janata Party
13	Pralhad Joshi	10 June 2024	Incumbent	162 days		Bharatiya Janata Party